Baking granola bars with M

As part of the October challenge, day 6 asks for you to make  or buy their favorite food. She doesn't have a favorite food, other than the food packs, so I thought we would make granola bars from scratch and hoped she will eat them!
 

 Here's the recipe:

2 cups quick oats

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 stick butter, softened

Preheat oven to 425. Combine all ingredients and mix. Grease 9x13 pan. Press mixture into pan and bake 10 minutes. Allow to cool and break into pieces. Add chocolate chips or nuts, if desired.

To make this really easy, I measured everything out while she was napping and had it ready to go when she got up. She enjoyed pouring the ingredients into the bowl and mixing it. I then poured it into the pan and let her press it down. She liked it until her Daddy came home while we were doing it and she promptly said "wash hands". I actually really like these. Probably because I'm starting to crave sweet things. I gave her a little piece after they cooled down a bit and she kept asking for "more" but they needed to cool a while and she had to go to bed before getting more. They  fell aprt so I'm not sure why. I guess they didn't get mixed well enough (I let her do most of the mixing)

Madison the next morning. She actually asked to eat one!

Monday, May I..

First, don't forget to do your Day in the Life post to linkup with Royal and I tomorrow! I initially did Thursday and then changed it to Saturday. I'm not sure I've ever done a weekend DITL post. You can start today or do tomorrow and link up later in the evening. Go here to see the post about the linkup.

Now, let's update last weeks goals!

 -Spend no money other than gas and groceries. We have really had a lot going on the past week or two so it's time to settle down a bit and buckle up!

Fail. Fail. Fail. Trying to do better with our spending though.

-Watch a movie(Admission). This is a given. I rented one today(free redbox code!)  and didn't watch it yet so I will watch it while Madison is at school tomorrow.

Done! This one was easy since I already had the movie and Tuesday was rough. This movie was really good! I figured it would be but I actually cried at the end! Highly recommended!

-Catch up on my cleaning! My back is hurting pretty bad to only be 25 weeks pregnant and I'm staying really tired. That means I would rather sit/lay down than do just about anything else. Alan is a huge help but things need to be done so he doesn't have to do them after working all day.

 A work in progress still. I did get a good bit done on Tuesday. If I can just keep the floors/counters clean and the laundry caught up, I'd feel much better! 

Now this week's goals!

-Manage my time better. With Madison, while she's at school, etc.

-Print some recipes from Pinterest and organize mine and Madison's recipe folder.

-Exercise!

Black Bean tacos

Full recipe at the bottom of post.

2 cups black beans, cooked

1/2 cup red onion, minced

1 tspn cumin

1 tspn paprika

2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped

8 oz pepper jack cheese, grated

2 Tbsp olive oil

In medium bowl, add beans, red onions, cilantro and spices. Add pinch of salt and lightly mash together. Grate cheese and have ready to go.

Add one tortilla at a time and let it get hot in oil for few seconds. Add couple of scoops of filling to one side of tortilla. Sprinkle top with cheese. Fold tortilla over to form shell.

Ingredients:

2 cups black beans, cooked

1/2 cup red onion, minced

1 tspn cumin

1 tspn paprika

2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped

8 oz pepper jack cheese, grated

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 avocado, sliced

salt and pepper

tortillas

hot sauce

salsa

sour cream

Directions

In medium bowl, add beans, red onions, cilantro and spices. Add pinch of salt and lightly mash together. Grate cheese and have ready to go. In large skillet, add oil over medium heat. Add one tortilla at a time and let it get hot in oil for few seconds. Add couple of scoops of filling to one side of tortilla. Sprinkle top with cheese. Fold tortilla over to form shell. As it cooks, add a second shell to other half of pan. Cook each taco until brown and crispy. Flip taco over toward the fold so your insides don't fall out. Serve with toppings.

My picky eater

This post contains a video near the bottom of the post. If you get the updates via email and would like to see the video, please go here:
http://alanandcrystal.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-picky-eater.html

I'm going to link up with Holly at When Two Became Four, and post some of Madison's latest meals/snacks. Holly is a mom of twin toddler girls, so I asked her to blog about her mealtime/snack favs. Every mom is different and believe it or not, it's hard to come up with healthy ideas for toddlers, without feeding them the same thing all the time.

Madison will love something one day and hate it the next, so I always need 2 ideas when it comes to meal times. Mostly for her lunches, we will both eat leftovers from supper the night before. She doesn't seem to like meat so we don't force her to eat it (or anything for that matter). I think it's important to let M try new things without forcing her to eat them. She's just like adults and knows when she does or doesn't like something. The two things she seems to hate are eggs and green beans. I'm not a huge fan of eggs myself, unless they are on a sandwich or in something. Alan despises green beans. So she has a little of us in her :)

For breakfast, she always eat a whole banana. I will then give her a couple of strawberries, orange or toast.

On this day, I spread peanut butter on a wheat tortilla, rolled it up and sliced it. She seemed to love it.

For lunch, she eats leftovers. If we don't have any, here are my go-to meals:

• sweet potato fries (sliced, sprayed with olive oil spray and baked)
• chicken nuggets (chunk chicken breast, dipped in butter, rolled in Panko bread crumbs and baked)
• frozen peas and carrots or beans
• mac and cheese
• crescent dough topped with cream cheese and chopped broccoli(Holly mentioned this and Madison loved it!)

 For snacks:

• Goldfish
• Cinnamon pinwheel cookies (sold in the baby food aisle)
• Homemade Vanilla Wafers
• Puff snacks
• food puree pouches
• string cheese
• yogurt 

I will leave with a cute video of Madison moaning while she eats. If you've ever been around her when she's eating, she does this just about every time she eats and has done it for as long as we can remember. It's so cute so turn your sound up to hear it!

 

What are your go-to snacks and meals for your kids? 

Chocolate Heath cupcakes

I had some leftover cocoa powder and Heath bits so I wanted to try to bake something. After my sad attempt at Reese's brownies for Thanksgiving, I had to redeem myself! I found the recipe(entire recipe listed at the bottom of the blog) on Taste of Home but I added some sugar to the icing. Alan said they were good, which means they are good. He hardly ever says that anything is good :)

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate toffee bits

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa and baking soda. Whisk the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add to dry ingredients just until combined. Stir in toffee bits.

I'm such a messy baker. Just look at that pan :/ You should see the sink and counter.. and side of the refrigerator .. and the apron I was wearing.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full(or in my case, all the way full). Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

FROSTING:

1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1/3 cup butter, softened

2 tablespoons milk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup English toffee bits 

For frosting, combine confectioners' sugar and cocoa; set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and 1/2 cup cocoa mixture until smooth. Add milk, vanilla and remaining cocoa mixture; beat until desired spreading consistency is reached. Stir in 1/2 cup toffee bits. Frost cupcakes. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Top with remaining toffee bits before serving. 

I always put my frosting in a ziploc bag and cut the corner off. For these I spread it around and dipped it in a plate of Heath bits.

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate toffee bits

FROSTING:

• 1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup English toffee bits or almond brickle chips

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa and baking soda. Whisk the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add to dry ingredients just until combined. Stir in toffee bits.
• Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
• For frosting, combine confectioners' sugar and cocoa; set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and 1/2 cup cocoa mixture until smooth. Add milk, vanilla and remaining cocoa mixture; beat until desired spreading consistency is reached. Stir in 1/2 cup toffee bits.
• Frost cupcakes. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Top with remaining toffee bits before serving. 
• Note- the toffee on top will get soft. If you are making these for a party before hand, take some toffee to sprinkle on right before serving.
• Yield: about 1-1/2 dozen regular size or 12 jumbo.

Homemade Vanilla Wafers

As said before, I would rather make something homemade than buy it. Have you ever looked at the ingredients or sodium in boxed, canned or bottled things? I was looking for some snacks for Madison and came across Weelicious. This site has a ton of great toddler friendly foods and snacks and also some regular recipes as well! I made these earlier in the week and Madison seems to love them! They are actually pretty good, even though they taste more like sugar cookies than the store bought boxed vanilla wafers. Sorry these are phone pictures so they aren't great. Full recipe at the bottom.

• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Place the first 3 ingredients into a bowl and combine. Place the butter and sugar in a standing mixer (or bowl using a hand mixer) and cream for 3-4 minutes until the butter is light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla extract and egg and mix for another minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go. Add the flour mixture and mix until combined. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Roll 1 tspn of dough into a ball, about 1 inch, and place on a parchment or aluminum foil lined baking sheet.
Flatten each ball into a disk then bake for 15 minutes.

Cool and serve. Mine aren't nearly as pretty as theirs.

Vanilla Wafers  (Makes about 4 dozen)

• Prep Time:35 minutes,
• Cook Time: 15 minutes,
• Total Time: 50 minutes,

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation

Homemade baked chicken nuggets

I made these for Madison to freeze as an easy lunch. I also made some last night for supper and Alan said they were good. He says that about everything, even if it's horrible. He's a great hubby. Everything is really depending on how many you want to make. For a meal, I'd say 2-4 chicken breasts would be enough for 2 people with some leftovers.

Ingredients:

2-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 stick melted, unsalted butter (1 cup)

1 cup grated/shredded parmesan cheese(not that cheap kind in the canister)

1.5 cup Panko bread crumbs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450.

Pour melted butter into a bowl. Put cheese and bread crumbs into another bowl.

Chop your chicken into nugget-size pieces. You could always do strips if adults are eating these. Dip the chicken into the butter then roll in bread crumb mixture. Lay out chicken on foil lined baking pan and bake 20 minutes or so, depending on the amount of chicken you have.

*To freeze, once the pan is cool, transfer to freezer. Let freeze at least 1-2 hours and then take chicken off pan and put into bag or container. To reheat, just put amount of chicken on baking sheet in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

Homemade White Chocolate Mocha

Alan loves Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha. I found a copycat recipe online and to our surprise, they were really good!

Ingredients:
2/3 - cup whole milk
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup freshly brewed strong coffee

Directions:
Add milk and chocolate chips to double boiler and heat until the white chocolate chips are melted. While the chips are melting start the coffee. Pour about 1/4 cup of the milk mixture into a large coffee mug. Add about 1/2 cup hot coffee and more of the milk mixture until it reaches the top of the mug.

I make big batches and freeze them. I double or triple the coffee, milk and chocolate chips. For the coffee, I put 5 heaping tablespoons in with 4 1/2 cups of water. The closest ratio for a travel mug/foam cup is 1 cup coffee to 3/4 cup milk mixture. This big batch will usually make 3-4 containers to freeze. I freeze them in glass containers just big enough for one cup of coffee and sit it in the fridge the day before to thaw out for in the morning.

The original recipe makes enough for 2 small mugs or one large latte mug.

Breakfast cookies

 I found this recipe and decided to try it for Madison to snack on. I cut the dried cranberries up in hopes she could eat them. They are too chewy for her to eat so I guess next go round, I will leave them out :) I like them and they are a good snack and good for you. No added sugar and no flour. You can add nuts or chocolate chips(if you need it sweeter) or whatever you want to add.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup oats

1 tspn cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 cup flax meal

2 1/2 cups dried fruit(cranberries, raisins, etc) or nuts

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup canola oil(I used olive oil)

1 teaspoon vanilla

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients until combined. Add wet ingredients then mix until evenly mixed.

Scoop a well rounded tablespoon, roll in a ball and place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Flatten to 1" or so(I didn't do this) They will not flatten during baking.

Bake 20 minutes or until brown

She seemed to like them but then spit out the cranberries after trying to eat them. 

Birthday Party DIY

I got a lot of compliments on some things at the party so I thought I'd share where I got the ideas!

Cake/Cupcakes

I knew I wanted to serve cupcakes versus cake at the party. I craved cupcakes my entire pregnancy and we kept my favorite cupcake place in business! I also knew I wanted her smash cake to have her name on the side of it. I went searching for pink and green and stumbled on this picture.

It was perfect! I had the pink M's on strawberry/cream cheese cupcakes and green 1's on vanilla/buttercream. I told the baker to put pink and green dots on her cake with her name on the side and  a pink '1' on the top. She did perfect! Even though the strawberry didn't taste like strawberry and they weren't pink, there were strawberries in the batter :)

 

I also made the cupcake holder. I bought 2 cardboard cake sheets from Party City-one smaller than the other- and spray painted them white. I also spray painted a Puff container white(the tower in between layers) and hot glued it to both layers. I then hot glue a thin silver ribbon around the bottom of the container. The pink edging is pink streamers. I noticed when I got home that one side of the bottom cardboard what straight, where the other edges were scalloped. Weird! I wanted to cover it so I did this. Total cost- less than $10 versus those store bought cupcake holders that run $13-$50 and typically hold 12-24 cupcakes. I wanted one to hold all 36 cupcakes so I didn't have to man the cupcake station and refill them if they ran out.
Each cardboard was less than $1 each. The streamers were $0.99 but I also used them as decorations. The spray paint was $4 and was also used on her M wreath(seen below) The Puff container was $2.99 when they were full of puffs so I won't count that cost into it since I bought them a while back and saved the container. I also glue canning jar rims on each corner to lift the bottom layer off the table just a tad :)

Puffs

I used this video to help because I had some trouble with the first couple I did. The 3 in the window, I didn't cut the ends after folding them. The big ones, 2 on the mantel and one above the stairs/gifts, I cut into a point, like the Dahlia in the picture below the video.

For the small ones I used 1 pack of tissue paper each. I laid out the paper and cut it in half. For the large ones, I just laid the tissue out and fold it long ways. If I had to do over, I would use 2 packs of tissue for each big puff.

Ice cream cups

I decided to do this so someone didn't have to worry about scooping ice cream the entire party. Plus we didn't wait for everyone to eat cake and ice cream until the end so people could eat their sweets with their food if they wanted. This actually turned into a melted ice cream disaster. I only sat out about 20 cups(we had 30 people) and only a few were ate. We looked over and ice cream was everywhere! If I had to redo, I would either get those little personal ice cream cups or put ice cream in a small plastic cups. It was a cute idea anyway.. To do this, you just scoop ice cream into cupcake liners and freeze them. I only have one cupcake pan so I just put them all onto 3 baking sheets, covered them in foil and froze them. 

Mason Jar drinks

I got a lot of compliments on these! One comment was "It's so simple but the liner makes it look elegant". I decided to do Hawaiian Punch in Lemon Berry and Green Berry Rush to tie in the pink and green theme. I got the straws(the are actually plastic!) and cupcake liners from Hobby Lobby. I decided to only do 12 drinks(6 each color) because we also had water bottles and now I wish I'd done 24! People actually drank them :) 

To get a good hole started, I put one liner on the jar to see where the straw would go. I then cut an X with scissors in the spot so when we put the straw in it, it wouldn't rip. The day of the party we filled the jars, put the liners on and stuck the straw in them.

 Mason Jar cutlery holders

 

Since using mason jars for the drinks, I decided to use some to hold the forks and spoons. I got a roll of really cute ribbon from Hobby Lobby and taped them to the top. It turned out cute! The ribbon tied the colors together and using the jars tied in the drinks too.

Water bottle labels

I wanted to pretty up the water bottles by replacing the brand labels with something to match the party. I found this link which has 5 labels on a sheet. I tore off the labels, cut these and taped them on with 2 inch tape. The only thing was they couldn't go in ice. We filled our fridge with 50 water bottles and sat them out. I didn't get to drink any so I hope they stayed chilled throughout the party! People thought I bought the bottles that way and they really liked them!

Veggie cups

I thought this would be a great way to keep Ranch dressing from being all over someones plate and our buffet, so we decided to do these cups. While people did eat them, I wish we had done these and refrigerated them that morning so we weren't assembling them when people starting coming over :) We just didn't have the room in the fridge, with 3 dozen cupcakes and 50 water bottles and all...I had already cut carrots, peppers and celery. We should have added some red and yellow peppers to help fill them up more. Ah well. Live and learn :)

High chair tutu

I knew I wanted to add some frilly to her high chair and found this tutu at Hobby Lobby. Luckily her high chair tray has a top tray that lifts out so you can put in the dishwasher so we just taped the ribbon under that tray. She didn't play with it as much as I thought. People loved it!

Balloon walkway

I found this picture on Pinterest and knew I wanted to do it. I didn't get a picture but we only lined up 6 balloons on one side of our sidewalk but I would have loved to fill it up like this one. I'm glad we didn't because it turned out so windy that day that they ended up laying on the ground anyway. It also started raining before the party was over and they all deflated due to the temperature dropping and the rain beating them. To stake them in the ground, I used golf tees and tied the ribbon around the top part.

Salsa

I got rave reviews on my salsa. It's always been my go-to recipe for any function I've needed to bring food to. All of those garden tomatoes I got from my neighbors this year came in quite handy! I think I used roughly 20 cups of boiled and chopped tomatoes and we had a bit left over. I also used fresh jalepenos, lime and cannded whole chiles that I chopped up. Here's my normal, small batch recipe:

3 cans diced or petite diced tomatoes (I always used Hunts brand)

1 jar diced chiles

1 jalapeno, diced (or more to taste)

1 diced onion

juice of 1 lime

1-2 tspn minced garlic (I use the jar garlic)

Mix it all up, add salt and pepper to taste and refrigerate. It always taste better the next day or after being refrigerated a while. Everything is really to taste so add or take away what you don't like. :) One good thing about making it is testing it is taste testing along the way! I have also found that Ingles sells the hottest jalapenos.. Really weird but it's true.. I've bought from every grocery store and theirs have always been hotter.

I will be posting the party pictures soon :)

Finger paints

We finger painted back when she was 9 months old. Now that she's a little more into being more careful with things, I decided to try it again. This time I was semi-smart and put her in her pool to paint, versus putting her on a trash bag on the deck like before :) It sort of worked. Remember the paints are edible and here's the recipe:

1 cup cornstarch

1 cup of water

food coloring

mix together and add coloring. Easy peasy!

Waiting paitently.. See them remnants of her boo-boo on her forehead? :(

A lot more gentle than last time!

(way overexposed but I loved it :) )

What was left of the paper.. Who knew paper dissolved in corn starch?